London, Apr. 23: Football’s governing body FIFA has reportedly announced that Barcelona’s year-long transfer ban has been suspended in order to review the Spanish side’s appeal.

FIFA had reportedly sanctioned the Spanish giants earlier this month after the club broke transfer rules on 10 under-18 players, but the ban has been suspended for time being du to the complexity of the matter.

According to the Mirror, FIFA has confirmed that given the complexities surrounding Barca’s appeal and the length of time it would take to decide whether it has been successful or not, the club would be able to sign players this summer.

FIFA said that the chairman of their Appeal Committee Larry Mussenden has taken into consideration the sanctions imposed against Barca, the complexity of the matter and the start date of the next registration period that would be July 1 2014.

FIFA also said that Mussenden had also taken into account the fact that their Appeal Committee does not seem in a position to take a decision on the main issue early enough, which means that Barca’s eventual appeal against its decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport would still be decided before the beginning of the next registration period.

FIFA had investigated Barca for 12 months over the club’s youth recruitment policy and said that at the time the club had been found to be in breach of article 19 of the regulations in the case of 10 minor players, which led to the ban being put in place.

FIFA had also said that Barca had committed several other concurrent infringements, which the disciplinary committee regarded as serious, in the context of other players and decided to sanction the club with a transfer ban at both national and international level for two consecutive transfer periods, together with a fine of 4,50,000 Swiss francs, the report added. (ANI)